Melvin Franklin

Melvin Franklin ( born October 12, 1942 † February 23, 1995, real name David Melvin English). Was an American bass singer, known as a member of The Temptations from 1961 to 1994 Franklin's nephew was the later Motown Star Rick James.

Biography

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, David Deutsch, the son of a priest, retired at the age of nine years, to Detroit, Michigan. As a stage name he adopted his mother's surname (Franklin ). He was a member of a number of regional singing groups in Detroit, including The Voice Masters with Lamont Dozier and David Ruffin (a distant cousin Franklin ) and sang together with his cousin Richard Street.

One day, he was on his way home from school, he was pursued by a large, dark-skinned teenager who drew his attention to itself. He thought the stranger was a member of the band, so Franklin fled before him. Later it turned out that it was the young man to Otis Williams, a singer of the group The Distans acted. Franklin came as a bass singer to the group. In 1960 they founded with Elbridge Bryant, Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks, the group The Elgins. In March 1961 The Elgin signed a record deal with Motown Records under a new name: The Temptations. He raved about the color blue, so he by his friends and acquaintances ( Deutsch.: blue) the nickname "Blue" received.

After over thirty years of friendship between Williams and Franklin, both of which have never left the group. As one of the most famous bass singers of the black music Franklin's voice became the hallmark of the group.

In the late 1960s, rheumatoid arthritis was diagnosed in Franklin. Symptoms of the disease were treated with cortisone, so that he could continue to occur and sing. The regular use of cortisone damaged his immune system, however, and he was thus vulnerable to other infections and diseases. In the early 1980s, he became ill with diabetes. In 1978, he was shot in the hand and in the leg when he tried to stop a man who wanted to steal his car. Franklin fell on 17 February 1995 into a coma and died six days later, in the age of 52, of a stroke. He left behind his wife, Kimberly English and his four children, David Jr., Davette, Felicia, and Niquos. Franklin California was buried in a grave outside the Forest Lawn Memorial Park at Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles.

1998 Franklin was portrayed by actor DB Woodside in the NBC miniseries The Temptations.